Twitter has blocked messages in Germany from a group banned by local authorities over right-wing extremism, using its powers to withhold content in one specific country for the first time.
“The account and all its content have been blocked for Germany, the content remains visible to Twitter users in other countries,” a spokesman for Twitter said.
Twitter announced plans for its so-called “Country Withheld Content” function earlier this year, which allows it to remove illegal content for one specific country, saying it believed that keeping messages up in other places would serve freedom of expression, transparency and accountability.
The spokesman said the move to block messages from the German group – which calls itself Besseres Hannover, which means “a better Hanover” – came at the request of police in the northern German city of Hanover.
Alex MacGillivray, Twitter’s General Counsel tweeted “Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly & transparently,” and linked to a copy of the police letter.
